Memories

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**edited, hope you enjoy**

Chapter 1: Memories

I remember now. Everything. From my Academy years to the present. I remember our fateful mission that day that left a comrade dead and another one stranded. We were the blessed team, the miracle team, and everything else in between: Minato-sensei, Kakashi, Obito, Rin, and I.

                We had been on a mission. That was the day that Kakashi had become a Jonin along with Minato sensei, and so he was leading the three of us, while Minato-sensei would be on his own. Given Minato-sensei’s amazing skills, we had no worries there. We were given a mission to destroy Iwagakure’s supply bridge and promptly evacuate. Normally, this would probably be a mission for a Jonin cell, but I guess since it was during the Third Great Ninja War, they decided that two Jonin and three Chunin were good enough.

                Since it was Kakashi’s first day as a Jonin, we were supposed to give him gifts. Minato-sensei gave him a new, oddly shaped kunai knife, while Rin gave him a personalized medkit. I beamed as I handed him a new watch with my name engraved on the other side of the clock face. It was kind of a joke, since he was always scolding others (especially Obito) about being punctual. He put it on, thanking me, and held out his hand to Obito, who had nothing to give. Then they got into another argument… as usual. Like everything else, if they’d known what was going to happen, I’m sure they would have restrained themselves from something so stupid.

                We had done fine, Kakashi trying out his new jutsu, the Chidori (and getting hurt in the process), until Minato-sensei and our cell separated and went our different ways. But even then, the traps that Iwagakure set were easily avoided.

                We got to a pond, and started walking across it with our chakra. That was when enemies attacked. A guy with spiky hair threw a bunch of logs at us, but Obito just set them on fire with his Fireball Jutsu. They crashed into the water, turning into ash. We thought we were doing all right until I heard Rin scream from behind me. We all gasped as another guy materialized next to his spiky-haired partner, Rin hanging limp from his arm.

                “Rin!” Obito cried, running forward. But the enemies took off, Rin with them. And I stood helplessly, knowing that there was no way I would be able to catch up in time.

                “Wait!” Kakashi reached out a hand, as though to try and stop them, but they were gone.

                Obito ran forward desperately, but Kakashi yelled after him, “Don’t chase them!” They got into a rather complicated debate about whether or not to chase after Rin, but eventually Obito went off by himself to try and rescue Rin, while Kakashi decided that the completion of our mission was our top priority.

                “What about you, Kira?” asked Obito, hope shining on his face as he turned to me. I gritted my teeth; why did they always have to pull me into everything? But I had to make a decision; I knew that. Even if I tried, I knew the two boys well enough to know that there was no way they’d agree to move as a unit.

                “Kira…” Kakashi’s voice was clearly a warning.

                I took a deep breath. “Kakashi, sorry. I have to try to rescue my best friend before I give up.”

                “Fine!” And the silver-haired Jonin was gone, leaving us on our own.

                It took Obito and I a while before we managed to track down their hideout, but eventually, we did so. Crouching up in a tree, I watched as Obito struggled not to cry. He’d always been a crybaby, but he refused to admit it. I think it had to do with his Uchiha pride.

                “Okay, let’s go!” he declared, finally. I smiled at his tough actions, but immediately tensed up as the shinobi with those invisibility powers materialized above us.

                “Where are we going?” He smirked. Obito whirled around, surprised, and I clenched a kunai in both hands, ready to fight. My wings were itching to unfold.

                He had just moved when a blur flashed in front of us, and I grabbed Obito, leaping backwards to the opposite tree. Kakashi’s katana slashed down the shinobi’s front, blood flying through the air.

                “Hey, Kakashi,” I said, smiling. He nodded briefly at me, before returning his attention to the enemy. I overheard something about Kakashi being his “father’s brat,” before the enemy shinobi just disappeared.

                “Just as I thought,” Kakashi murmured, leaping over to join us. “Even his smell is gone… we’ll have to locate him by the slightest sound.”

                I held my breath, knowing that this wouldn’t be easy. Two seconds… three… four… and soft footsteps were heard.

                “Obito, behind you!” Kakashi yelled, and Obito barely managed to move. A blade came slashing down, and Kakashi cried out as the blood seeped from his eye. I wasted no time, grabbing the medkit Rin had given him and sticking a patch over his eye. It was the best I could do; I was no medical ninja, and we had a schedule to keep.

                Obito was trembling.

                As I pushed the last piece of tape into place, I heard the footsteps again, and opened my mouth to yell a warning. But Obito had already plunged his kunai into the shinobi’s torso. His chakra was different now, and I knew his Sharingan had developed. “This time,” he said, “I will be the one to protect my friends.”

                And I loved him for that.

                We burst into the cave, where we found Rin tied up with her head hanging limply, although her eyes were open. The spiky haired guy turned in surprise and glared, calling us stupid brats.

                We fought him, Obito and Kakashi charging him first, and me following to take the finishing blow. We managed to disarm him long enough to dispatch Rin’s genjutsu and untie her.

                But just as we thought we were going to succeed, spiky hair guy did some kind of earth jutsu that caused the ceiling to cave in. We all made for the exit, but Kakashi, not used to having only one eye, got hit on his head with a small rock and fell over. Obito pushed him out of the way, and as the dust cleared, we found him lying under a giant boulder, his entire right side gone.

                We all tried in vain to shift the rock, but Obito told us not to, and asked Rin to transplant his Sharingan into Kakashi’s now-useless eye. He called it the gift that he owed Kakashi. I was crying. Rin was crying. I think the boys were, too. Kakashi took the eye, breaking through the rock above us and attacking all the enemy shinobi with his newfound power. He came back for us, stretching out his hand. “Take care of Rin,” Obito whispered, as he watched Kakashi haul Rin out of the hole.

                But other reinforcements had arrived by then, before Kakashi could get me out, and they did the same jutsu that spiky hair guy had done. The ground cracked and crumbled, shifting the rocks again and completely burying Obito. I buried my head in my arms and wrapped my wings around me, trying to keep my vital organs from getting crushed. I was lucky; the stones happened to fall in a pattern that barely sheltered me. I was alive, but that rock above me looked unsteady.

                “Kakashi!” I yelled. “Rin!”

                I thought I heard their voices above me, but I couldn’t be sure. And that was the end of it for a very long time.

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